Отличный отель за такие деньги! Great hotel for the money!

We rested at Ibis Phuket Kata from November 16 to 25.2010. Great new 3 star hotel. The room is small, but has almost everything you need - air conditioning works great, satellite TV (Russian channel only English speaking Russia Today), there is a safe (very important! ), a small refrigerator, an eclectic kettle and a set of dishes for making tea and coffee (every day two floors -liter bottles of drinking water for free), hairdryer, shower, in addition, there is a completely tiny balcony with two chairs and a table. The only complaint is a very small wardrobe, in addition, half of the wardrobe is occupied by a refrigerator and a safe. We were lucky, we had a room with a view of the pool and mountains, from the facade the view is not so picturesque, and the construction still going on in the neighborhood is sometimes noisy.
When checking into a hotel, they take a deposit, they took $ 100 from us for a double room, although they could have paid 100 euros or 3.000 baht, for some reason there is no difference for them. When checking out, if there are no problems, they return the same banknotes.
There are several computers with paid Internet access in the hotel lobby (30 minutes - 100 baht, 1 hour - 150 baht) and free Wi-Fi. In the Internet cafe next door, prices are, as usual, twice as low.

The food is normal, but not very varied - traditional scrambled eggs, sausages, cold cuts, muesli, cereals, pastries, milk, tea, coffee, juices, fruits, plus something from Thai cuisine, everything is quite tasty. If you wish, you can also dine at the hotel, every evening a new menu - a buffet costing from about 250 to 350 baht, depending on the menu, but there are so many excellent Thai restaurants nearby that it’s simply a sin not to visit.
Cleaning in the room every day, everything is done neatly, there are no complaints. In general, all the staff at the hotel are very friendly and polite. If it rains and you urgently need to go somewhere, you can rent an umbrella for free at the reception. Just call your number, sign in the magazine and get an umbrella, do not forget to sign there when you return it.
It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the beach, although the ocean is very close, the fact is that along the entire Kata beach there will be a Club Med complex surrounded by a fence and guarded by security, which do not allow outsiders into their territory, so you have to bypass it. There is a free shuttle to the beach from the hotel from 8-30 to 16-30 every hour, but we preferred walking. On the beach for 200 baht you will have at your disposal two sun loungers and an umbrella, highly recommended, because it is simply dangerous to sunbathe under the sun for a long time. Unfortunately, there are no toilets, no changing cabins, and, moreover, a shower on the beach, but massage parlors and eateries are in abundance.
Massage parlors are a separate topic, you just need to visit, we went every day. There are a lot of types of massage, duration from half an hour to two hours, an hour flies by absolutely unnoticed.
Prices for such pleasure are simply ridiculous - about 200 baht per hour.
If you decide to change baht, it is better to head along the road leading south towards Kata Noi, exit the hotel, reach the road and turn left, go to the first turn to the right (landmark - a fountain with elephants), 15 meters from the intersection, towards the ocean , an exchanger with traditionally the best rate in the area. By the way, there is a shuttle bus stop across the road from it (there is also a schedule) going to Phuket city, in an hour and 30 baht you will reach the city. The trip itself in such an exotic bus is a small excursion.

You can go shopping in the city, very close to the Festival bus stop, everything is quite glamorous and expensive there, another 500 meters along the same road and you get to TESCO Lotus, where everything is not at all glamorous, but very cheap with good quality Thai goods. Just do not forget to tell the driver (he is also a conductor) about the Festival and he will tell you when to get off, the Thais are generally very polite and always happy to help.
If you want to visit a real Thai market, there is one next door, 10-15 minutes on foot. After exiting the hotel to the right, go to the first turn to the right (opposite the passage to the ocean along the river), turn right and go to the crossroads, cross the road and you are there, there is something to see in terms of exotic and plus fruits are half the price vendors on the street.
Oh, and don't forget to haggle when you buy something on the street or in a small store where there are no price tags, the main thing is to smile. Feel free to divide the price in half and, smiling, look at the seller’s reaction, they never take offense and after that they name a price close to the real one. For example, I bought a hat (the sun beat down mercilessly), the girl dials the price of 550 baht on the calculator, I take the calculator from her and, smiling, dial 300, pass it to her, he dials 350, I nod and say “OK”. That's all the auction, everyone is smiling, everyone is happy and no offense.
A little about excursions. “Free cheese only in a mousetrap” is about a free sightseeing tour of Phuket. If someone thinks that you will be shown the sights of the island for free, then they are mistaken. Really, only a visit to a Buddhist temple and an observation deck is free, then everything is for money - elephant riding is still all right, but the persistent vtyukhivaniye of goods at a snake farm and a latex factory is terribly reminiscent of network marketing. By the way, if anyone is interested, latex pillows can be bought in stores on the island for half the price than in the “latex factory”, but on the first day of your stay you don’t know this yet, that’s what you’re counting on. It's quite interesting to visit a jewelry factory (if you have a day in Bangkok, they will take you there again). You can look at the process of making jewelry and, if you want to buy something, the things are really beautiful and the choice is huge, again, do not forget that the prices there are not final, although they are indicated on the price tags. If you are seriously interested in some thing and hint that you really want to buy it, but you do not have enough money, you will immediately be given a discount or even offered to name your price.

Even before the trip, we found out that travel agencies offer excursions at prices that are about twice as high, and it turned out that in the travel agency on the streets you can find excursions with a Russian guide at half the price.
We took only an excursion to Phi Phi Island, for two we gave 3100 baht, and we were offered 3200 baht per person. How do you like the difference? By the way, during the tour, the Russian guide is of little use, when the motors of the boat are running, the roar is such that it is unrealistic to shout it down. For the entire duration of the tour, he speaks for 30 minutes, no more. Phi Phi Island is certainly beautiful, but the crowds of tourists do not add charm to it, and what can you see during a 30-minute stop?
We stop for 5 minutes at the “Viking Cave”, in which, according to the guide, there have never been Vikings, but supposedly there are images of some ships, it is impossible to look at them because the cave is inhabited. We go further... 40 minutes swimming in a mask and with fins over a coral reef (the best part of the tour), then lunch on the island of Phi Phi Don (buffet), 1.5 hours on a coral island and drive back. That's it, end of the tour.
It would be better if we just took an excursion to the coral island - for only 990 baht (with lunch) you sunbathe all day, swim, admire the corals and fish.